Hi there, my name is Dot Morgan visiting you from sunny Camden, Texas. I am a character from the historical Swinging Sixties Mystery Series and am single and twenty-three years old. Well, sort of single. I have a sort-of boyfriend who is a reporter for the Camden Courier.
We are all still in shock after what just happened to our beloved president, John F. Kennedy. I think my cousin Ellie and I feel this more than most, because we were there when it happened. Ellie is my sidekick, co-sleuth, and all-around best friend. We were so excited to see John and Jackie, mainly because we wanted to see what Jackie was wearing. Ellie runs the Blue Bonnet Dress Shop, and she is crazy about fashion. I had on a pink dress just like the color Jackie was wearing. That’s my favorite color until I saw what happened to Jackie’s outfit after he was shot.
I was lucky because I was winding the film on my Instamatic camera when he was shot, but Ellie, and I’m worried about her, was looking right at him. When we went home to our shared apartment and I broke out a bag of Chips Ahoy cookies. They just came out this year and I can’t seem to stop nibbling on them. I shut myself up in my room and listened to Peter Paul and Mary crooning out songs about peace.
If I had a hammer,
I’d hammer out justice,
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters,
all over the world.
Why can’t it be like that?
My parents called to check on me, and I’m surprised they didn’t come over. They live just a few blocks from where I live. I told them I’m okay, but my aunt Mavis came over to be with Ellie, along with her fiancé Al. She was really shaken.
It’s going to be hard for me to go to my job as a secretary at Gibson Construction on Monday, but my boss, Jimmy Gibson, doesn’t stop work for anything. We are demolishing a string of old rental houses for something Jimmy calls “retail for the future”. The strip mall. I kind of hate to see the old houses go. Who knows what kind of history is tied up in them? Kind of mysterious, you know?
I’ve been working at Gibson Construction for several months now. It’s run by the Gibson brothers who are about alike as oil and vinegar. Jimmy is always on the go, a hothead, and works as many hours of the day as possible. His brother Milton takes life at a slower pace and is the one person who has shown me kindness at my job. The Gibsons are stepbrothers, and not actually related except by marriage. Their relationship is on display every single day. I go into work, type and file and share a cup of coffee with Milton while we talk about the day. Then Jimmy storms in and gives me a pile of work to do, and Milton gets out of there as fast as he can. Jimmy then goes out to the construction site and leaves me to run the office. That’s okay, because it gives me time to call my friend Mary Oliva, who works at the police station. I should say she is a policeman, but that doesn’t sound right. I can’t believe it’s 1963 and they still call women by that name. I think she should be called a police lady, or maybe a police woman.
Mary was very helpful to me last year after a mysterious death that was being blamed on my father. Even though she trained at the academy just like the men, they make her do all the filing while they go out and do police work, but there is a silver lining to her job. It means I can see whatever I want in the police files, but after what I saw last year in the Manning Investigation, I don’t.
Murders are few in Camden and right now, we are all grieving for our dear president. I’m sure it will be quiet around here… for a while.
If I Had A Hammer, A Swinging Sixties Mystery Book #2
Genre: Historical, Cozy
Release: March 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
A new job, a brutal murder, and Camelot has ended.
In 1963, Dot Morgan’s life was changed forever. She witnessed the assassination of John F Kennedy through the lens of her boxy Kodak Instamatic camera, bringing traumatic aftereffects of the brutality that happened as they stood on the parade route in Dallas.
She starts her first real secretarial job with a boss who has no sympathy for her trauma. When Dot’s only work friend has a mysterious accident at a demolition site, she digs around on her own only to find very little love between two brothers and no one hammering out justice to find a murderer.
The suspects are all around Dot and as she tries to sift through their motives, her cousin Ellie is going through PTSD on her own, losing interest in work, and her fiancé all the while quoting some of JFK’s finest speeches.
About the author
Teresa Trent is the author of over 15 books. She started writing cozy mysteries with the Pecan Bayou and Piney Woods Mystery Series. She mainly sets her stories in different geographical areas of Texas and The Swinging Sixties historical series is set just north of Dallas, starting in 1962. You might think with so many books set in the Lone Star state, she was born there, but no. She has lived all over the world, thanks to her father’s career in the army. After living in Texas for twenty-five years, she’s finally put down roots.
Teresa is a hybrid author, self-publishing early in her career, which led her to traditional publishing with Level Best Books and Camel Press. She is the author of several short stories that have appeared in a host of anthologies. Teresa publishes the blog and podcast, Books to the Ceiling at teresatrent.blog where she loves to read other writer’s book excerpts and share in the writing community.
Teresa is a member of Sisters in Crime and lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son.
All comments are welcomed.